New US Beats-enabled HTC handset to rival iPhone?

Rezound, the new HTC mobile handset, was announced last night (November 3) in the States.

It has been speculated that the Rezound is going to be big competition for the iPhone as it has been partly designed by producers and musicians to help hone the appeal to a music-loving market.

Like the Sensation XE, the Rezound handset comes equipped with Beats headphones but below the surface, it's a different matter as technology website CNET UK explains: "At first glance, the Rezound's spec's look exactly like those of the HTC Sensation XE... but the US-bound Rezound is 1,280x720 pixels resolution, compared to a paltry 540x960 on the Sensation XE... The XE also only has 4GB storage, while the Rezound packs a whopping 16GB... there's 1GB of RAM, as opposed to 768MB on the XE."

Features include a Beats Audio DSP (digital signal processing) chip and special in-ear Beats Audio headphones.

Speaking about the relationship between the quality of music and mobile technology, Jimmy Iovine, Interscope Chairman, Beats Audio founder and music producer said: "Artists spend millions of dollars to make their records sound a certain way... but [mobile] technology moves so fast, sound got left behind."

"Most technology companies are culturally inept. But when I met Peter [Chou, HTC Chief Executive], I realised, 'This guy moves like we do.' The record industry needs a company like HTC to bring music to the phone," he added.

HTC's Peter Chou revealed that the partnership will see more high-end devices developed: "We'll make Beats Audio a premiere experience, implementing it at the super-smart phone level."